WTT Feeder Istanbul results shake up ITTF rankings in Week 21 update
Maharu Yoshimura and Li Yu-Jhun turned Feeder Istanbul into a rankings swing, while the ITTF’s Week 21 update left the top names unchanged.
Maharu Yoshimura and Li Yu-Jhun came out of WTT Feeder Istanbul with titles, ranking points and the clearest gains in the ITTF Week 21 update, turning a $30,000 feeder stop into a meaningful step up the ladder. Yoshimura beat Andrej Gacina 3-0 in the men’s singles final, while Li Yu-Jhun defeated Park Gahyeon 3-1 for the women’s crown, results that mattered because the event paid 125 ranking points to singles champions and 90 to runners-up.
WTT Feeder Istanbul ran from May 10 to May 14 at Ata Sporları Merkezi in Istanbul, Türkiye, and its point structure made every win count. Singles semifinalists earned 60 points, quarterfinalists 40, round-of-16 players 10 and round-of-32 players 2, while doubles champions also took 125 points and finalists 90. That setup is why a feeder event can alter the pecking order quickly for players sitting just outside the sport’s top tier, especially when one clean run can translate directly into better seeding, stronger qualification prospects and another entry point into the next level of the WTT calendar.
The Week 21 rankings published on May 18 showed that the summit itself did not budge. Wang Chuqin stayed No. 1 in the men’s list ahead of Truls Moregard, Tomokazu Harimoto, Felix Lebrun, Lin Shidong, Hugo Calderano, Lin Yun-Ju, Sora Matsushima, Jang Woojin and Dang Qiu. On the women’s side, Sun Yingsha remained at No. 1, followed by Wang Manyu, Miwa Harimoto, Chen Xingtong, Zhu Yuling, Chen Yi, Kuai Man, Wang Yidi, Sabine Winter and Hina Hayata. The top of both lists stayed crowded with the same elite names, but the Istanbul results mattered because the movement underneath those leaders can decide who gets a more favorable draw and who keeps climbing.
The other big winners in Istanbul were Ryoichi Yoshiyama and Kazuki Hamada in men’s doubles, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee in women’s doubles, and Yiu Kwan To with Ng Wing Lam in mixed doubles. For those pairs, a feeder title was more than a line on a results sheet; it was a direct rankings boost in a tour where small margins can change the next month’s opportunities. WTT also tied the Week 21 update to the return of the series with WTT Contender Lagos 2026, and it highlighted Hugo Calderano’s run of 400 consecutive weeks in the world top 20, a reminder that the sport’s elite can stay fixed even as the chase beneath them keeps tightening.
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